1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to clocks and semiconductor devices, and more particularly to clocks with traditional hands and dials that can periodically announce the time with a speech synthesizer and integrated circuits suitable for interfacing to mechanical movements that include speech synthesizers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Clocks can generally be divided into two types, analog and digital. The analog clock has the familiar twelve-hour dial and arms that sweep the dial to indicate hours and minutes. An arm to indicate seconds is sometimes included. Digital clocks generally have a six digit numeric readout, two for hours, two for minutes and two for seconds. Both types can have an alarm function and a date calendar function.
Analog clocks have traditionally had mechanical movements and digital clocks have conventionally included crystal-controlled digital circuits with seven-segment liquid crystal displays (LCD). Digital logic can be used to drive an analog clock dial, and mechanical movements have been produced that rotate a system of wheels with numbers painted on them to simulate a digital readout.
Presently there are two types of talking clocks using speech synthesizers, digital and analog. Depending on the type of speech synthesizer involved, the construction and announcement of a message can involve piecing together the particles of speech, phonemes, or whole words and phrases from a library of sounds stored in computer memory. An announcement of the time then involves selecting a phrase that corresponds to the time of day.
In a digital clock with a conventional digital time-keeping circuit. synchronizing and interfacing the speech unit to the clock mechanism is a relatively straightforward process of digital logic design. The implementation of such a system can be done in a cost-effective implementation that can be offered on the mass market throughout the world. The prior art includes several examples of digital talking clocks that have been marketed to users who want to hear the time announced periodically. Digital talking clocks are available with a choice of several languages, e.g., English, Spanish, German, French, Mandarin and Japanese. Sounds other than spoken words have also been included, for example, rooster crows have been used for the alarm function.
However, synchronizing and interfacing a speech synthesis unit to an analog clock with a traditional mechanical movement is not as easy.